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State Library and Gates Foundation Keep Libraries "Connected" to Internet

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 14, 2005

CONTACT:
Sarah Dalton
California State Library
916/654-1483

State Library and Gates Foundation Keep Libraries "Connected" to Internet

SACRAMENTO - Nearly every California library provides Internet access to the hundreds of thousands of Californians who do not have the Internet at home. But keeping-up with evolving technologies on library computers can challenge library staff. Not anymore.

Today, thanks to Staying Connected, a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the California State Library, in conjunction with the California State Library Foundation , nearly $.75 million will go to training library staff to provide long term support for public access computing, a move that will enable customers who need it most to stay connected to the Internet.

Staying Connected is the follow-up grant to a 1997 Gates Foundation grant that, targeting less affluent communities, put 46,000 computers in 11,000 libraries. Staff from Infopeople , a LSTA project administered in California by the State Librarian, will do the training work throughout the state.

State Librarian of California, Susan Hildreth, says that Staying Connected " will help California libraries and library staff continue to offer their users, particularly those in California's neediest communities , sustainable access to the wealth of information and services on the Internet. "

To view the Gates Foundation press release on Staying Connected go to
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Libraries/USLibraryProgram/Announcements/Announce-050113.htm.